Iw Rescue Squad Is Rebuilding

Update: Follow-up on local news

ISLE OF WIGHT — After a few rough -- at times, very rough -- years, the Isle of Wight Volunteer Rescue Squad is rebuilding.

Serving a part of the county where the population has grown steadily and is expected to boom in the next decade, the squad must sustain a constant recruitment effort.

Squad president John Treier, a volunteer for a quarter century, would like to see about 25 more members join the squad of 60. He said the squad has been adding two or three new volunteers a month of late.

"What we have to do now is keep these people," he said, "and run the squad as well as we can and treat these people right."

The Daily Press has written about the rescue squad on and off in recent years, covering its struggle to serve a growing population.

That time period also saw two men die after emergency 911 calls were not answered. The negative publicity hurt the squad's lagging volunteerism even further, Treier said.

"There was some perception, a lot was blown out of proportion, but some failure, too," he said. "And the only way to fix that failure was to change the way we do things."

The county soon began hiring paid rescue staff to work shifts at the squad. More volunteers left, Treier said, but a core group stayed.

Even more paid staff will be needed, Treier said, but volunteers remain the center of the organization.

Richard Childress, the county's emergency management director, said the county will have spent at least $280,000 on paid staff by the end of this budget year. Next year, it will spend about the same or more.

The next few years will require a greater marketing effort to grab new members, Childress said. A recently awarded state grant should provide a few thousand dollars for billboard ads and other messages, he said.

But Childress is a realist. He knows the county needs more volunteers, and it can take anywhere from two to six months to train them.

The squad also faces turnover problems. Treier said young people often use their training and eventually take a paid position in a nearby city.

Treier said volunteers must keep up with several certifications and put in long hours. An "active" volunteer must pull four six-hour shifts a month, in addition to working their full-time jobs and being on call at other times.

"No matter what anybody says, the volunteer has to be a professional," he said. "We're just not paid professionals."

THEN AND NOW

By KIMBERLY ETTINGER Daily Press

25 YEARS AGO. City officials had acknowledged the problem: Hampton's main public library branch, the Charles Taylor Library, was bursting at the seams. The question remaining in 1977 was what to do about the situation. The city could not afford to build a new library, but lack of space prevented expanding the old building.

The library problem continued for another decade. Books flooded the building, employees had no office space, and patrons were lucky if they could find an available chair. Relief finally came in 1987 when a new library opened, replacing the 63-year-old Charles Taylor building. The new main library, on Victoria Boulevard next to the old building, offered six times as much space as the former location.

The old building reopened in 1989 as the Charles H. Taylor Arts Center. It houses changing exhibitions and educational programs.

10 YEARS AGO. Gloucester County parents held a peaceful demonstration at a school budget hearing to protest that Botetourt Elementary School did not have a gymnasium.

Botetourt students practiced gym class exercises in a trailer. At the January 1992 School Board budget hearing, parents held signs urging the board to "Remember Botetourt" among the budget requests.

By spring, the School Board considered packaging the Botetourt gymnasium request with plans to build a sports complex for Gloucester High School.

The board later agreed on a plan for the two projects. The Botetourt gymnasium was completed in late 1993. The Gloucester High School sports complex opened in fall 1994.

5 YEARS AGO. The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation wanted to build new stables for its livestock in 1997. The old stables on Lafayette Street, built in 1951, did not meet the needs of the growing livestock program.

Foundation members hoped a larger stable facility would create more space for its animals while adding more room for storage, carriages and employee activities.

In the first phase of the project, completed in 1998, a six-stall stable was built at Carter's Grove. The second phase called for tearing down the old 11-stall stable on Lafayette Street and building a new 24-stall stable in the same location. This was completed in 1999.

Richard Nicoll, Colonial Williamsburg's director of coach and livestock, says that the Historic Area currently has numerous animals, including horses, cattle, sheep and poultry. Because of the Virginia climate, most animals remain outside. The stables are used for working horses, inclement weather and veterinary visits. Employees also use the stables for storing equipment, such as carriages and harnesses.

Kimberly Ettinger can be reached at 247-4882 or by e-mail at kettinger@dailypress.com.

Patrick Lynch can be reached at 357-4138 or 247-4926 or by e-mail at plynch@dailypress.com